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Motorola Debuts a Wireless Speaker Your Friends Can Jack

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Sol Republic Motorola Deck Review

More DJs, Please

The Sol Republic Deck, made in partnership with Motorola, has a multi-user mode that lets up to five people pair with the speaker to play music. You can pre-order it today for $199.

LED Logo

The "SOL" logo is also an LED, which flashes to indicate who is controlling the music.

360-Degree Sound

The 360-degree sound is conducive to groups, although it might not be the best choice acoustically.

Loud Playback

The Deck can play mighty loud, although the sound distorts slightly at the highest volumes. Volume is controlled by the +/- buttons on the face.

Controls and Jacks

You engage multi-user mode via the switch on the left. There are also a headphone-jack input em output. The power button resides on the side, too.

Port

A port on the bottom helps augment the bass.

Bare Side

The other sides of the Deck have no ornamentation.

Compact Design

The dimensions of the Deck are about the same as a PSP, with weight similar to an iPad.

Bottom

The exterior of the Deck is made of rubberized material, giving it a rugged feel.

With HTC One

The Sol Republic Deck, pictured with the HTC One.

My friends don't have terrific taste in music, so ceding control of the tunes playing at the impromptu after-dinner dance parties that happen in my kitchen isn't going to happen. Sharing control of the soundtrack to our evening, however, is a likelier scenario. With the Sol Republic Motorola Deck ($199), as many as five of us can use our Bluetooth-enabled smartphones to dictate what we're listening to at any given point.

At its most basic level, the Deck is a fine portable Bluetooth speaker. Weighing about as much as an iPad with dimensions along the lines of the PSP (or roughly the size of a full cosmetics carrier), the speaker could fit in a back pocket, though I feel much more at ease tossing it into a day bag.

It's a bright neon green (other colors are available) with an occasionally glowing "SOL" emblazoned across the top. There are just five controls, mostly integrated into the speaker face: Volume up, volume down, power, a multi-functional button for play/pause/answer & end calls/outdoor mode/share lock, and a toggle for single- or multi-user pairing. The built-in battery gets its charge via micro USB.

Party Audio

There are two modes of play, and I mostly used it in single-user mode. This mode allows for phone calls, and there's an internal mic for when I'm near the speaker but away from my phone rather than vice versa.

The share mode is what sets the Deck apart. As many as five users can pair devices to the speaker; whoever hits play on his/her phone first controls the music playing. The changing of ownership happens whenever someone hits play, so some coordination amongst friends is going to be necessary — otherwise, it's just a scrum of sound. When the sharing creates just too much noise, there's an anti-heist option controlled via the play/pause button; whoever's in charge at the time can continue DJing unabated until someone hits the button again.

Pairing with a smartphone is simple, either via Bluetooth or one-tap NFC (though the spoken audio prompts, chimes and flashing lights seem a bit cuter than a reasonable adult would deem necessary). The lights, by the way, also flash to indicate changing ownership in multi-user play.

The Deck is made for partying, and its big sound overreaches for such a compact device. Outdoor mode pumps up the mid- and high-range sound, but in both indoor and outdoor settings bass is lacking. The 360-degree sound claim the manufacturers make is less a function of highfalutin' virtual surround sound as it is a practical assessment of the positioning of the speaker channels: seated on its base, the speaker throws sound up and around.

Attention on Deck

Personally, I preferred propping the Deck up to direct the sound towards myself, at least in single-user mode. The Deck is certainly intended to get loud, though sound distorts slightly at higher volumes. Another quirk: It's incapable of going silent even with the volume at zero, oddly — making it a bit less convenient than other Bluetooth speakers for quiet listening at the office cubicle.

Still, as a party trick or dance pit kickstarter, the novelty of a multi-user speaker should earn it a place at your patio party, softball game (think: personalized at-bat music), or mah jong marathon. For any social gathering where you want to share music quickly and easily, there's really nothing better.

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